• 1 Post
  • 57 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: June 20th, 2023

help-circle



  • Pretty sure my great great grandparents were German. I’d have to double check that. My grandmother’s maiden name is pretty German Jewish, but I can’t recall at the moment whether she was a first generation immigrant or not. I did some research on this a few years back, and I would have to look at my notes to confirm.

    It’s a little confusing because there’s a actually some German heritage on both sides - the grandmother above was my father’s mother, but there’s some on my mother’s side, too.

    Americans are obsessed with genealogy, and I spent some time on it during the pandemic, so I can tell you I’m some odd fraction German, which you usually can’t get to, like 5/8ths, because it comes from both families.






  • Yes, I think you are missing the joke. I’ll explain it, because that can only make it funnier.

    In the show, it’s quite obvious that it’s just Mr. Burns with a fake mustache. He apparently didn’t even think of a fake name until he’s called upon to suggest what to do with the money, because he says, “Mr…Snrub. Yes, that’ll do.”

    The writeup is ignoring that and writing out the theory, with supporting evidence, as though realizing Mr. Snrub, is, in fact, Mr. Burns would be a major revelation to everyone. (Also it’s not my theory, I just reposted it, as noted at the top of my comment.)



  • This is my favorite fan theory, originally created by the Four Finger Discount people, I’m told, but I can’t find it on their site:

    In Simpsons episode 9F10, “Marge vs. the Monorail”, the town meeting is interrupted by a mysterious character named Mr. Snrub. It’s a strange scene, because we never actually find out who Snrub is, and he doesn’t show up again in the rest of the episode, or indeed, in the rest of the series. However, I think I might have figured out why: Mr. Snrub is actually Mr. Burns in disguise.

    I know it sounds implausible, but here is my reasoning:

    Notice that “Snrub” has the same number of letters as “Monty”, Mr. Burns’s first name. Coincidence? Maybe, but there’s more.

    Notice how quick Smithers is to agree with Snrub. I think the writers added this line as a subtle hint to the audience that there is some connection between Snrub and Burns. It also explains why Smithers was so willing to help Snrub in his time of need; because Snrub reminds him of Burns in some deep, ineffable way. If you listen closely to Snrub’s voice, it sounds an awful lot like Harry Shearer. Harry Shearer does the voice of many characters on The Simpsons, including Reverend Lovejoy, Seymour Skinner, Ned Flanders, and… Mr Burns. This doesn’t tell use for sure that Snrub is Burns, but it does narrow down the possibilities considerably.

    When Snrub stands up to speak, he mentions that he comes from “someplace far away”. The writers of The Simpsons have always said that they consider Springfield to be somewhat flexible in its reality. For example, in one episode, Moe’s Bar is a short walk from the Simpsons’ house, but in the movie, it’s right next to the church. It is quite possible that, for the purpose of this scene, the writers wanted Mr Burns’ home to be “far away” from the Town Hall.

    Notice that, in the above scene, when everyone in the Town Hall starts to get angry, Snrub instinctively tents his fingers, not unlike Mr Burns’ signature gesture. Now, to be fair, we occasionally see this gesture done by other characters, such as Homer, Bart, and even Lisa. But, I mean, still.

    I will admit that this theory has some flaws. For example:

    If Snrub is Burns, how did he grow the moustache so quickly? We saw Burns earlier in the episode dumping nuclear waste in the park, and he didn’t have a moustache then. This could partly be explained by the fact that, strictly speaking, we don’t know how much time has passed between that scene and the scene in the Town Hall. Perhaps this was enough time for Burns to grow the moustache that would disguise him as Snrub?

    We all know that Smithers is in love with Burns, and that Burns doesn’t return Smithers’ affection. So, why is Burns so quick to embrace Smithers and hang on to him as they escape the building?

    Look at this comparison of Snrub and Burns. They look almost nothing alike. For one thing, notice that Snrub has an extra wrinkle under his left eye. His face also settles into an expression that is open and happy, in contrast with Mr Burns’ scowl. In addition, Snrub has a more prominent overbite, the three liver spots on his head are further apart. I haven’t even gotten started on the colours: Snrub wears a dark blue suit with a black tie, and has light blue hair. Burns, in contrast, wears a teal suit with a pink tie, and has gray hair.

    If Burns really was at the Town Hall, then who was running the nuclear plant? The lights are on in the building, which clearly means that the power is working. Snrub’s suggestion is that the city give the two million dollars to the Nuclear Power Plant. Why would Mr. Burns do this, since Burns already knows that the power plant is where the money came from? This leaves us with the possibility that Snrub was just an innocent person who spoke at the town meeting without being fully informed about the background details (hence why everybody was so mad at him for being so ignorant and unprepared).

    So, at the end of the day, it’s hard to say who Snrub really is. It’s even more difficult to say why he showed up in only that one scene, and why he never showed up again — perhaps he was a character the writers wanted to introduce to the show, but could never find a good enough story for.

    Like many fan theories, it’s probably not true, and I’m probably over-analyzing it, but it’s sure fun to think about!



  • I can see those kinds of things working in or near cities, but out where I am - fairly rural - there’s just too many miles of road to install a bunch of speed humps or similar things. It would take a monumental amount of money. They don’t even have shoulders on most of the roads. I admit even I speed when I’m driving them, although I’ll slow down for bends in the road so as not to clobber a deer, cyclist, pedestrian, etc. that might be lurking out of sight.

    (I got into a fun argument here on Lemmy a few months back with someone who insisted horse and buggies should have lights, and I was like, “What happens when you come around the bend too fast and there’s a tree laying in the road?” He just couldn’t accept the problem is the driver, not the horse and buggy. Basically, that’s what’s wrong with drivers in the US: We, as a group, have a bizarre expectation that things will always go to plan.)

    I’m also nervous about these solutions for another reason - I’ve seen towns install those kinds of calming measures in a way that hurts cyclists. In one example, they extended the curbs out to the lane, which does slow down traffic - but it forces cyclists who could previously ride on the shoulder into the lane, thereby further enraging drivers. I had one asshole pass me in that very narrow section some years ago, so now I make sure to ride in the middle of it, so they’d actually have to hit me. They won’t do that because they don’t want to damage their precious car, so I’m safe.

    And I say this as someone that lives in an area that’s actually pretty good for cycling, that is, most drivers are actually pretty good about passing safely and all that.


  • Interesting. Mostly what I see is people slam on their brakes near the camera, then take off again after it.

    My theory: There’s so little enforcement of the traffic laws here, they might as well not exist. You’re almost certain NOT to get caught, so people will do whatever they want and will practically always get away with it. I don’t really want to argue for more cops, but when I’ve driven in areas with more traffic enforcement and visible police presence, people tend to drive much more sedately.

    I drive and ride bicycle, and I would LOVE if the cops came riding with me some time. I see some of them doing the 100 mile ride for charity in our county, so I know they have people on the force who ride fairly seriously. Join one of our regular group rides wearing cycling clothes (not police gear), get another cop stationed ahead in a car or motorcycle…and start pulling over some people who buzz us or roll coal. Word would get out very quickly.






  • This is a tough one. The problem with local only backups is, what if there’s a fire?

    I use Amazon Glacier to store my pictures. It’s $0.0036 / GB per month, so I pay less than $2/month for ~535 GB of storage that I’m using right now. There is also a cost for downloading, but if I need it, I’m going to be happy to pay it (and the costs aren’t crazy). Uploads are free.

    (The other problem with Glacier is that it’s not really an end-user-friendly experience, nor is it something easily automated. I use SimpleAmazonGlacierUploader, a Java program someone wrote, to do it. You can also upload to S3 and have it archive things to Glacier automatically - I’ve never tried this but it should work.)

    I considered getting my brother or a friend to build two storage servers (with RAID5 or something) that we’d each keep at home, and just sync to each other. Good if you have a friend or family member willing to do it (or at least host your offsite box). Down sides: Cost to build it, time to build and maintain it, cost to replace things that break, plus cost for electricity. I’ve been using Glacier for many years, so by now maybe I would have spent less on that theoretical backup system, but I also did not have to worry about it.


  • I have an old S9 right here on my desk. I cracked the screen, and took it to one of those screen replacement places, and he asked if I had insurance. I told him I didn’t, and he said, wellllllll it’s going to be a lot more expensive than you think to replace this screen.

    That wraparound screen they had was basically also the frame of the phone - you’re not so much replacing the screen as you are moving the rest of the components to a new phone body. I wasn’t sold on value of that wraparound screen in the first place; this didn’t improve my opinion of it.

    We put a plastic screen protector on it and a new case, and I used it for a few months until we were ready to upgrade phones.